Samsung Heavy Industries attended the opening of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC) and strengthened U.S. business cooperation by signing agreements with major U.S. shipbuilders, universities and other institutions.
The Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center is an organization established under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources to support joint research between Korean and U.S. shipbuilders and communication between governments and corporations.
On the 23rd (local time), in Washington, D.C., Samsung Heavy Industries attended the opening ceremony of the "Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC)" and signed agreements with major local U.S. shipbuilders, universities and other institutions for U.S.-focused projects in shipbuilding.
That day, Samsung Heavy Industries received approval in principle (AiP) for the basic design of a 12,000-cubic-meter LNG bunkering vessel being jointly developed by the company and Conrad Shipyard from Conrad Shipyard and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Samsung Heavy Industries and Conrad Shipyard established a cooperative relationship in December last year to jointly build LNG bunkering vessels.
Samsung Heavy Industries also signed a strategic business cooperation agreement with Saronic Technologies, a startup corporations in unmanned surface vessel design and manufacturing.
The two companies will research unmanned surface vessel autonomous navigation and artificial intelligence (AI) digital solutions technologies, and will cooperate to build production infrastructure such as Robotics-based process automation.
Samsung Heavy Industries will also expand cooperation with Vigor Marine Group, a U.S. maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) corporations.
Samsung Heavy Industries signed an agreement with Vigor Marine Group on establishing a training center to secure welding and painting personnel essential for shipbuilding and repair.
Samsung Heavy Industries said the center is expected to use the company's Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)-based welding and painting facilities and training programs.
It will also expand cooperation with U.S. universities and equipment manufacturing corporations.
Samsung Heavy Industries agreed to work with Miller, a U.S. welding equipment manufacturer, to develop an "AI-based stainless steel spool manufacturing system."
It also signed research agreements with the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), San Diego State University (SDSU) and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) on developing a virtual training system for shipbuilding workers.
Choi Sung-an, CEO of Samsung Heavy Industries, said, "The U.S. shipbuilding cooperation initiatives we have prepared so far will set a new milestone with today's opening," adding, "Based on the technological capabilities Samsung Heavy Industries has, we will do our best to usher in a renaissance for the Korea-U.S. shipbuilding and offshore industries."